Bank Cards: Surcharges

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 11 February 2013, Official Report, column 524W, on bank cards: surcharges, when the legislative guidance that will accompany the ban on excessive surcharges will be published.

Jo Swinson: The guidance will be issued this week and will be placed on the Department's website:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-innovation-skills

Families: Disadvantaged

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  for how many families local authorities have been able to claim the payment by results element of the Troubled Families Programme since April 2012;
	(2)  for how many families local authorities have been able to claim the payment by results element of the Troubled Families Programme since April 2012, by local authority.

Brandon Lewis: As of the end of December 2012, local authorities claimed results for successfully turning around the lives of 1,675 troubled families. In line with the terms of the payment-by-results scheme, which is set out in the Financial Framework for the troubled families programme, local authorities will receive payment for five out of every six families they successfully turn around.
	In March 2013, the Department published progress information on the Troubled Families programme, broken down by local authority. This information is available on the Department's website:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/136318/130228_-_PI_for_publication.xls
	The final column 'Number of families turned round' represents the number of results claimed for families by each local authority.
	We will publish this data regularly throughout the Troubled Families Programme.

Energy: Housing

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many and what proportion of households are off grid for gas supply in each (a) local authority area and (b) region.

John Hayes: The exact number and proportion of households who are off the gas grid is not held centrally.
	Estimates have been produced based on information held from two administrative sources; these are the Gemserv database on the location of electricity meters, and data from xoserve and independent gas transporters on the location of gas meters. Subtracting the number of gas meters from the number of electricity meters produces a broad estimate of the number of off grid properties. However some households can have more than one electricity meter associated with their property (for instance, a supply for communal facilities such as-stairwell lighting or a lift). Additionally, the standard gas industry definition of domestic use uses a consumption threshold, with any consumer using less than 73,200 kWh of gas per year being classed as a domestic user; it is estimated that—Great Britain wide—this definition allocates around 2 million small business users as domestic. Furthermore a small number of meters (less than one third of 1%) do not have sufficient information associated with them to be able to allocate them to a specific area. The underlying data on the number of gas and electricity meters in each local authority is available on the Department’s website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/regional-and-local-authority-electricity-consumption-statistics-2005-to-2011
	and
	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/gas-sales-and-numbers-of-customers-by-region-and-local-authority
	A table showing, for 2011, the number of domestic electricity meter points, the number of gas meter points where consumption was less than 73,200 kWh, the difference between the two figures (which forms an estimate of the number of households off the gas grid), and derived from this, the estimated proportion of households off the gas grid in each local authority and region in Great Britain, has been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Energy: North Sea

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the level of production of (a) oil and gas and (b) renewable energy sources in the North sea in each year up to 2019-20.

John Hayes: The Department does not estimate future levels of production from the North sea area alone but out-turn data on, and projections of, oil and gas production are published at for the entire United Kingdom and UK continental shelf:
	https://www.gov.uk/oil-and-gas-uk-field-data
	Out-turn data on renewable energy generation are published in the Digest of UK Energy Statistics at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-sources-of-energy-chapter-6-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes
	We publish energy demand projections (which include UK demand for renewable and waste energy) at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change/series/energy-and-emissions-projections

Renewables Obligation

Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if his Department will take steps to amend the renewables obligation subsidies to renewables in proportion to the change in the wholesale price attributable to carbon price support. [R]

John Hayes: The impact of the carbon price floor on wholesale prices was taken account of in the analysis to inform the renewables obligation banding review, as detailed in the final stage impact assessment published in July 2012(1). The Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), announced in the March Budget 2013 that the carbon price floor trajectory will remain as planned.
	(1)https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/42847/5945-renewables-obligation-government-response-impact-a.pdf

Employment and Support Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications for employment and support allowance were processed within 16 days in each of the last four years; and in each case what proportion that represents of all the claims submitted.

Mark Hoban: The information available for employment and support allowance (ESA) new claims processed within 16 days, is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 ESA Claims Processed April 2009 to March 2010 April 2010 to March 2011 April 2011 to March 2012 April 2012 to January 2013 
			 ESA claims processed in 16 days (number) 504,400 577,000 621,800 554,300 
		
	
	
		
			 ESA claims processed in 16 days (percentage) 72.9 81.0 84.5 82.7 
			 Source: Management Information System Programme (MISP). MISP is a departmental performance management, data capture and reporting tool. This type of internal management information does not form part of the official statistics outputs that are released by the Department in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority's Code of Practice.